Hero or Harbinger?
by mountedcombat
Summary: Everywhere he goes, death and destruction follow. Who will help him when he decides that he's the source?
1. Introduction

**A/N: I'm doing a few timeline changes. Asuna isn't captured by Sugou (I can never keep his name straight with Suguha's) while leaving SAO; instead, Kazuto joins ALO to have fun, Asuna soon joins as well, and it is at that point that Sugou captures her. Also, Kazuto joins GGO at the same time as in the show, but the Death Gun killings don't start until after he's joined. Finally, instead of starting off at the point where the story deviates from the show, I'm going to start from the moment he enters GGO for the first time, since the changed timeline will cause small but significant changes to the chain of events.**

 **I have a running commentary in this chapter. It's funny, but it is very disruptive to the flow of the story, so if I get three reviews from people with accounts saying to remove it before I get three reviews from people with accounts saying to keep it, I'll remove it from this chapter.**

 **I'm writing this piece of the A/N after I finished the chapter, as an apology: I totally forgot how much happened between his entering the game and my deviation point. I'm going to have to devote the entire first chapter to covering it, so know that there won't be too much that happens that you don't already know about from the show.**

 **I do not own Sword Art Online.**

"blah-de-blah" – speaking

' _blah-de-blah'_ – thinking

 _Blah-de-blah_ – running commentary

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In an ominous city, shrouded in mist and bristling with spires, inside an abandoned alcove, he spawned. Kazuto, username Kirito. ( **A/N: I will henceforth refer to him almost entirely as Kirito** ) The first thing he sees… is his feet. Upon looking up, however, he sees a lane full of people wearing bulletproof vests and carrying various types of guns. His first thought?

' _It's pretty different from ALO.'_ He looks around, thinking, _'A world that's specialized for killing, huh?'_

Finished with the process of taking stock of his surroundings, he looks back down and moves his hands so that they're in his field of view, moving them around to get used to his new avatar. He thinks, _'Now then…,'_ getting ready to set out, when he notices a lock of black hair wave in front of his eyes. A lock that's long enough to almost reach his hands. He spins around and looks in the mirrors on the wall behind him. He has waist-length black hair, violet eyes, long eyelashes, thin eyebrows, and smooth features. His avatar is, by all appearances, a rather good looking female.

His first reaction: "Wh-what the hell?!"

His voice is just high-pitched enough that you can't tell from just the sound of it whether the speaker's a boy or a girl. He starts thoroughly checking his appearance in the mirror, angling his head to see it at different angles and such. After a few moments he sighs and says, "At least they could've made me resemble a soldier a little."

Then a creepy guy pops up behind him, "Hey, you're an F-1300 type, right?"

Kirito jumps in surprise and spins around, pressing back against the wall.

The guy continues, "That's really rare… You almost never get one. I'll buy your whole account for two mega-credits, miss!"

Kirito, confused for a moment, asks "Miss?" before his eyes widen and he pats himself down to make sure that his avatar is male. After a sigh of relief, he says "Sorry, I'm a guy."

The guy's jaw drops. "Th-Then that's an M-9000 type! I'll pay you four… No, five megas! Sell it to me! Please sell it to me!"

Kirito turns him down, "Um, this isn't a default character. It's a converted one. I can't really sell it."

The guy groans, "Oh, I see…"

Kirito sighs in relief, then walks past the guy with a "Sorry. Bye."

The guy yells after him, "Contact me if you change your mind!"

Kirito walks off and wanders the city for a little while. As he's wandering, he's getting stares and catcalls from every guy he passes. What he also hears, though, are rumors…

Rumors that a man who calls himself "Death Gun" has been going around and shooting people in the game, with the direct result of them dying in real life.

' _They're just rumors… right? There's no way it could happen a third time in a row…'_

The city is filled with interconnected walkways and stairwells, creating a veritable airborne maze between the towers. A few hours of wandering later, he is completely… and hopelessly… lost. He notices somebody walking along a walkway connected to the one he's on. He runs up to them, "Um, excuse me. I'm lost…" Then he notices that the person is a woman with aqua-colored hair, a white scarf, and a green jacket. A woman who also appears not to be in a good mood. He thinks _'Crap, she thinks I'm trying to hit on her._ '

She looks over her shoulder, revealing aqua-colored eyes, and asks, "What?" Kirito is frozen in terror, so she gives him a once-over and asks, "Is this your first time playing the game?" When he jerks, she kindly smiles.

Kirito gets out an "Um…" before internally cringing as he realizes: _'she totally thinks I'm a girl.'_

The girl, completely unaware of the true nature of the person in front of her, asks "Where do you want to go?"

Kirito gets out, "Um… Well…" before both visibly and audibly swallowing his pride. He then proceeds to act the part of the girl that has no idea what she's doing. "Yes, it's my first time playing. I'm looking for a place to get cheap weapons."

The real girl in the pair responds "Sure, I'll take you to a place I know."

As the girl starts to walk off, Kirito thinks, _'I feel bad for this, but I'm going to let her think I'm a girl for a while.'_

While they're traveling, Kirito brings up something he'd noticed. "So what's this Bullet of Bullets event I've seen advertised so much?"

She incredulously responds, "BoB? Ah, you just started today, right. It's a tournament of all the best players in the game."

"Oh… do you think maybe I could join?"

"Well… Your stats might not be good enough."

"This is a converted account, so I'm bringing my abilities from another game."

"Oh, I see." As she says this, the girl gets what almost appears to be a smug grin for a moment, before asking "Can I ask what brings you to a game like this that's dirty and stinks of oil?"

Kirito responds, "I've always played fantasy games… I wanted to play something more cyberpunk." A giant billboard advertising a gun shop floats past, and he admits: "And I was kind of interested in gun fights."

The girl responds, "Ah… And you're starting with BoB? You've got guts. I'll take you to a big market with lots of stuff. We're almost there."

Kirito responds, "All right."

The walk into a shop with a giant neon sign of the word "MARKET." As they're walking through the halls, giant screens on each side showcasing products, Kirito comments, "Th-This place is kind of amazing."

The girl ignores him and starts talking about what weapons they have. "GGO has two major weapon types, energy weapons and physical weapons. Energy weapons are light and accurate, but players can equip a defensive field that halves their damage. If you're doing a PvP fight like BoB, you want a physical gun."

"Okay."

When they arrive in the "physical gun" section of the store, they find it packed. It seems that everybody is looking for something to fight another player with.

The girl comments, "Sure is busy today" before turning and asking, "What type of stats do you have?"

Kirito responds "Mostly strength… And speed after that."

The girl gets a thoughtful look and mutters, "A strength-agility type, huh?" before saying "Then your main weapon should be a heavy assault rifle, or a large-caliber machine gun as a main weapon and a handgun sub-weapon, for a mid-range type."

While she's explaining this, Kirito's eyes widen, before he gets a bored/aggravated expression.

She continues, "But you just converted, right? So you don't have much money?"

Kirito, facial expression back to normal, responds, "R-Right. Let's see. I have 1,000 credits."

She responds "That's the starting amount, isn't it? With that money, you can't buy more than a small ray gun. If you wanted a physical gun, I doubt you could even buy a used revolver."

Kirito's expression falls slightly before she asks, "Um… if you wouldn't mind… Should I lend you some?"

Kirito waves his arms in front of him, "N-No, you don't have to do that! I know. Is there anywhere I could earn a lot of money?"

The girl responds, "I can't recommend it, but there are casinos and gambling games. There's one over there." and points to an old-west style structure with a mechanical cowboy standing in front of it, and signs with the word "Untouchable!" above the building itself and a lane in front of it. The cowboy timely taunts, "Hey, chicken! Come on!"

Kirito asks, "What's that?"

The girl tells him while pointing at the end of the lane, "You enter from that gate, and dodge the NPC gunman's bullets." Her finger shifts so that it's pointing at the cowboy. "The goal is to make it as far as you can. And if you tag the gunman, you get all the money other players have ever put in."

Kirito shouts "A-All of it?" As he sees the number 301500 displayed above the building.

The girl mumbles "About 300,000 credits, huh…" While Kirito chokes out "Th-That's a huge amount…"

The girl turns to him and says "It's impossible." At Kirito's questioning look, she explains: "Once you pass the 8-meter line, he starts doing these cheap speed draws. By the time you see the prediction lines, it's too late."

"Prediction lines?"

The girl grins and whispers "Watch… Someone's about to add to the pool."

Two guys are hyping a guy in navy-colored camouflage, "Today you're gonna win!" "Get ready!" With him shouting "All right!"

He puts his palm on a scanner transitioning money from his account to the pool, and the cowboy says "I'm gonna blast you from here to the moon."

The man says "Okay, I'm gonna clear this today."

One of his friends tells him, "Yeah, we're counting on you." And he tells them "Leave it to me."

The gates open and he charges forward for a few meters before suddenly stopping and entering an odd pose. Kirito wonders "What's he doing?" before bullets fly through the areas that the man had pulled limbs out of by striking that pose. Kirito asks the girl, "Was that the predictive line?"

"Yes, a defensive assist system, the bullet line. Except for a sniper's first shot, a targeted player will see a display showing the path a bullet will take."

As she's explaining this, the guy charges a few meters farther before ducking. The cowboy shouts "I'll _kill_ you!" and fires a volley above the guy's head. With a cocky grin, he says "Too easy!" and continues his charge. Then he crosses a purple line on the floor. The cowboy tells him "You loser." and whips out a volley that forces the man to leap backwards, leaving him sitting on the ground. The cowboy grins and looses one last volley, hitting the man who is now unable to dodge. The cowboy tells him, "Game over." and another 500 credits are added to the pool.

The girl continues her explanation of why the games impossible. "See? You can't move far to the left or right, so you have to run right down the middle. That area's the limit."

Kirito mutters "I see… Then, when you see the prediction lines, it's too late." And walks up to the console. The girl tries to stop him, but he's already paid. The onlookers make comments about how *she*'s cute, and prepare for the newbie to get shot.

The girl resigns herself to watching Kirito fail. What she can't see is the determination in his eyes…


	2. Declaration

**This took WAY longer than it should have.**

 **I do not own Sword Art Online.**

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3… 2… 1… GO!

These words flash on the sign above the lane, and Kirito takes off running down the lane.

The cowboy says "I'll kill you!" and a trio of lines travel from his gun to Kirito's head, right shoulder, and left knee.

Kirito leaps sideways out of the way of the bullets, skidding on the ground for a moment before resuming his breakneck run down the lane. Kirito begins dashing side to side, which seems to throw off the cowboy's aim, as he simply stands there trying to line up his next shot for a few moments.

Finally, he declares "You loser!" as another trio of lines travel from his gun to Kirito's forehead, left shoulder, and chest. As the gun fires, Kirito ducks down and left, avoiding the shots without even slowing down.

The aqua-haired girl on the sideline blinks in surprise. "That's…"

At that moment, Kirito passes a glowing line on the floor, and one of the onlookers exclaims, "She's already made it ten meters?" while another asks, "Who is she?"

The cowboy tells Kirito "Die." and pops out his empty bullets, throwing in a new set and firing it off only for Kirito to bob and weave past them, still not slowing his run. He speed loads another set of bullets and exclaims with a crazed look in his eyes, "Go to hell." An almost perfectly horizontal line of bullet lines forms through Kirito's chest, and he elects to simply slide under the next barrage.

Kirito tells the Gunman, "You're out of ammo!"

But something's wrong… the gunman's _grinning._

Kirito leaps into the air as the cowboy swings his gun back around, the barrel now glowing neon blue. The crowd exclaims in surprise as a set of lasers shoot out of the revolver, but all they hit is he floor where Kirito would have been standing had he not jumped. Kirito does an elegant flip as he soars through the air, before reaching up and placing a hand on the cowboy's chest as he lands in a crouch.

Everything is silent for a few seconds as Kirito takes a few steps back from the building that the cowboy is standing in front of. The cowboy screams his defeat, "NOOOOOOOO!" before coins start pouring out of the building, completely burying him. The entire audience's jaws are on the floor as this newbie collects 302,000 credits for beating this unbeatable challenge. As Kirito accepts his reward, the coins disappear and the gunman leaps back to his feet, twirling his pistol and taunting, "Hey, chicken, come on."

Two men sum up the thoughts of the entire audience with the simple phrases, "What was that?" and "Who is she?"

The aqua-haired girl walks up to Kirito and asks, "What kind of reflexes do you have? At the end, in front of it, you dodged lasers fewer than two meters away. There's hardly any time between the prediction lines and the actual shots!"

"My reflexes aren't _that_ impressive."

"What do you mean, your reflexes aren't that impressive? You just completed an unbeatable challenge! On your first try!"

Kirito looks away nervously, then looks down sadly. "Well…"

He doesn't get to finish, however, as a robot carrying a stack of newspapers zips into the room, blaring "News flash! Death Gun on a rampage! 17 dead and counting! News flash! Death Gun on a rampage!" as it rolls around, trying to sell its newspapers.

Kirito's eyes widen. "They… they weren't just rumors. This can't be happening again! No, no, no, no, no…"

The girl, recognizing the all-too-familiar signs of a panic attack, tries to get Kirito's attention. "Hey, we never did introduce ourselves, did we? I'm Sinon, what's your name?"

Kirito doesn't seem to hear her, however, and progresses to hyperventilation.

The now identified Sinon grabs Kirito's shoulders, practically shouting at him, "What's your name?"

Kirito does a complete emotional 180. Suddenly, he's completely calm. Too suddenly.

Kirito says "My name is Kirito. I'm called a hero, but that's a lie. I'm no hero… I'm a harbinger."

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 **Sorry for the short chapter, but I decided that I had kept you waiting long enough and posted this as soon as it could be called a chapter.**


	3. Apology

**Although I started this story with a solid concept, I just can't seem to follow through on it. Therefore, I am putting this story up for adoption. But I'm not going to adopt it out like that dog that pees all over the furniture; no, I'm going to adopt it out like the dog that saved my life three times and that I don't live in a healthy environment for.**

 **So here's what want to happen: Anybody that believes they are capable of carrying the torch will send me their version of the next chapter, along with what they would title the story. If I like it, I will send them a message giving them permission to write this story and I will update this note with the identity of the person who got permission, along with what they named their version.**

 **I sincerely apologize for letting this story down.**

 **This story has been successfully adopted by:**

 **-bankerrtx01 under the title "Hero or harbinger?"**


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